Mayor Hinchcliffe Completes Epic Comeback, Takes Indy 500 Pole Position

James Hinchcliffe won his 1st Indycar pole

Comeback stories are nothing new at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), but what we witnessed Sunday may top them all, as James Hinchcliffe took pole position as the last driver to run in the Fast Nine session which concluded Indy 500 qualifying. Barely a year removed from a life threatening Turn 3 crash which left him bleeding profusely after being speared by a suspension piece, the Mayor of Hinchtown loudly proclaimed himself fully healed and ready to win Indy with a stirring qualifying effort that had fans cheering every lap as it was announced on the Speedway's public address system. I was holding down a spot on Pit Lane for photos of the pole winner throughout the Fast Nine shootout, and when he finally wheeled into the Verizon Pit View stand area after four very intense laps, the ensuing scrum was absolutely crazy as people poured in from everywhere to congratulate James on his stunning achievement.

The grand prize - The Borg Warner trophy

Every year at Indy when I see something like this, it reminds me that these drivers are not like the rest of us. They are not supermen but their will to go fast and be first runs seemingly runs contrary to the basic survival instincts with which most of us "normal" people are familiar. Hinch came back from a near death experience at Indy in May 2015 to win the pole a year later. Buddy Lazier won the 500 in 1996 with a broken back. Mario Andretti won in 1969 with burns so severe on his face that his twin brother Aldo had to sit in for him on many official photos. Will Power overcame a broken back from a wreck at Sonoma to ultimately win the Indycar Series championship. And these drivers think nothing of hopping in a car whenever the track is green to try and run 230 mph laps for the first starting position in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. They are not like us, I'm telling you. All the more reason for me to be out there every chance I can to grab those photographs which may help document Indy's history in some small way. At the very least, they help cement those moments into my memory and provide fodder for future story telling.

Lighting in Turn 1 Wednesday and Thursday was simply gorgeous

This year my time has been somewhat limited at IMS due to my teaching schedule. The best I could do was race to the track from Noblesville for Happy Hours during the week so I had only about 5 hours of shooting from 30 hours of track time last Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday were a different story however, as I was out there essentially dawn to dusk. I would not have wanted it any other way. One of the coolest things to every happen to me at IMS started on Wednesday and carried over into Thursday. Many times when I have limited track time to work, I don't go out with a preconceived idea of where I am going to take pictures. The Speedway is a big place and you can't physically cover it all when time is limited. Wednesday I thought I would go to the pits to get driver and people candids, but as I walked across Georgetown Road from our mudhole parking area, something told me to go to the Stand E Penthouse area at the south end of the front straightaway.

Simon Pagenaud's Dallara was never prettier

Once I got up there, I noticed an unusual pattern of sun and shadow in Turn 1 that I didn't think I had ever seen before. When I say "ever", that means since 1984, so I was drawn to work with this lighting in a way I could not have foreseen that day. It was incredible to see these cars blast out of the black shadows into the bright sunlight - roller coaster trains emerging from a tunnel. I went back there on Thursday afternoon as I wanted more of those shots and apparently the word had gotten out as there were quite a few other photographers up in the Penthouse whereas I had been the only one the day before. Lighting is everything so it has really been cool to see what everyone did with those conditions, which I surmised was a direct result of the new grandstand construction that created these most unusual light and shade patterns.

I was near the yard of bricks and grabbed Alex Tagliani's crash with Canon's 200-400 zoom

Another really cool aspect of being a credentialed photographer at Indianapolis is the opportunity to work with Canon USA, which sends technicians to the track to clean and check our gear, and provides loaner equipment. So it's fun to try out expensive gear like a 500 mm f4 lens or the 200-400 zoom with a built in 1.4 converter. While these are fantastic pieces of glass, one thing I noticed later is that my pictures don't immediately benefit. There's still a learning curve I have to go through to adjust to their weight, plus the framing and focusing is different than what I am used to on the gear I own and typically use day in and day out. Nonetheless, it's a great chance to try out equipment that I would hope to have someday. For the week, I shot about 3100 pictures last week for motorsport.com, submitted about 670 and they used 200, so it was a good week by just about any measure.

Now we prepare for Carb Day Friday and the race this Sunday. Friends and family from all over will be in town, and my new colleagues from France will get their minds blown Sunday morning once the green flag flies. I am already feeling the butterflies and can't stop thinking about my race day plan and where I will go to get pictures that tell the stories of the day. Strap in and hang on as this race promises to be as epic as the Mayor's comeback. I hope you have your tickets! Godspeed and safe travels everyone.

Pagenaud Rules Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Simon Pagenaud claimed the pole and race

On the coldest race day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the 1992 Indy 500, Team Penske ace Simon Pagenaud continued his winning ways in 2016 with a dominant win on the IMS road course last Saturday in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. It was not surprising since he also started on pole position and seemed to have the field covered in almost every track session. Teammate Helio Castroneves took second while James Hinchcliffe prevented an all-Chevy podium by taking third with his Honda powered machine. The Verizon Indycar Series put on a good show for the fans who turned out over the three day event as there was plenty of track action to follow from Thursday morning through Saturday evening. The Mazda Road to Indy support series were on the card and the Indy Lights series ran two full races, so fans got a lot of racing for their dollar if they came out to IMS for even part of one day.

The weekend started off beautifully

I was there all three days shooting for motorsport.com while covering the Indycar and Indy Lights series. In typical Indiana Spring fashion, our weather was ultra changeable with everything from rain showers to bright sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's to Saturday's overcast, windy and cold conditions. It made no difference whatsoever for what I had to do, however, as I still had to make some pictures and get them transferred for the website to use. To do that, I covered a lot of ground and loved every second of it, as I was on a mission to add variety to the photos I was delivering. On Thursday's practice day, I walked over 27,000 steps around IMS. I followed that up on Friday's qualifying day with more than 18,000 steps and another 18,000 plus on Saturday's race day. My Thursday numbers were a personal all time best according to my pedometer app and equated to more that 16 miles hoofing it around the Speedway to find those photos! I was glad that Sunday was an off day as the Speedway got converted to oval track configuration!

Pagenaud winning pole was no surprise

Once the race was over Saturday evening, I was not the last to leave the photo "cave" in the media center but it was close. What I call the cave is the second floor area where photographers work with the main room lights turned off so it is dark and we can all see our computer monitors better. May has become somewhat of a singular pursuit for me since I am not working with any photographer colleagues at Indy yet nor is there a photo editor on site for me to report to. I love being in that cave when everyone has finished shooting as you hear other photogs discuss what they got (or missed) and what they may have encountered during the day while trying to get photos they needed.

John Menard's reaction in Victory Lane was priceless

I got rebuffed once during the Grand Prix when I tried to get above the F1 garages which had suddenly become off limits to photographers. Something like that seems to happen every year at IMS as the rules seem to change willy nilly about who can go where on the property, so we just have to adjust. That happened to me late in Saturday's race so I had to find another place to shoot the finish. I finally decided to give up on that and just get ready for the checkered flag to get a shot and then be close enough for the winning driver's reaction as they exited their car. That turned out to be a great decision as I was right in the middle of all the celebrations in pit lane as team owner Roger Penske, primary sponsor John Menard, and even competitor Scott Dixon came around to offer congratulations. It was an awesome feeling to be in the midst of that and hear all the conversations that were going on at the time, so I would make the same decision again if I get the chance.

Now we move on to the big show - the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. I have been to every Indy 500 since 1976 as a spectator or photographer so this is my 41st consecutive race and 43rd 500 overall. Since I started shooting at Indy for UPI in 1984, I have seen and photographed a lot at Indy but I still get goosebumps every year.  I expect this year's race to be even more intense as the drivers vie for the title of Indy champion for the 100th time. It used to be called an "International Sweepstakes" and I know media interest in this race worldwide is higher than it has been in years, so I am grateful for the chance to be a contributor. I will even have a couple of colleagues on race day this year as I'm told there are two photographers from France coming over, so that will be something fun and different as well. It still looks like a Chevy will win this year if you ask me, but I hope it's a fast, safe month for all concerned. Let's go racing, ladies and gentlemen. See you at the track!

Talladega Tougher Than Ever

There was fire in the Xfinity race at the end

If you believe that stock car racing is a religion in the South, then the sermons that were delivered at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend were full of fire and brimstone. All three races ended under caution due to wrecks near the finish. Friday's ARCA race was the the calmest of the weekend's races but a last lap accident led to a video review to determine that Gus Dean won rather than Josh Williams. Saturday's Xfinity race had a similar conclusion and Sunday's Sprint Cup race looked like a short track demolition derby, as almost every car was bound up with duct tape at the end - except for winner Brad Keselowski. While I haven't been to Talladega in two years and have only been shooting there since April 2011, even the veteran local photographers were talking about how crazy the races were this year with numerous "big ones", race cars getting airborne, lots of torn up equipment, and drivers wrecking at every corner of the track. And fire; plenty of it.

I started the ARCA race in the flagstand with officials and a General Tire contest winner

This year I pulled double duty at Dega, working all day Friday for ARCA as its official photographer along with friend and mentor "Doc", and then Saturday and Sunday shooting for Associated Press (AP) as a stringer for the Xfinity and Sprint Cup races. Those assignments could hardly be more different in terms of expectations, but it was great to get back down south and see my AP friends again. Friday started very early with a 6:00 a.m. visit to the credential office and ended after midnight once I finally shut my computer down back at the hotel. In between, I logged over 20,500 steps on my pedometer app. After patrolling the ARCA garage, pit lane and checking out the Turn 1 photo tower during the day to get photos the ARCA series needs, I started the race in the flagstand which was exciting. After a few laps, I walked around the outside of Turn 1 to the Turn 2 tunnel to get back in the infield, then shot for awhile in the Turn 1 photo tower, then walked to the pits to shoot the last third of the race before doing Victory Lane. Talladega is a HUGE track and if you've never been there then you really need to go to comprehend how massive the turns and banking are for yourself.

Keselowski took the Sprint Cup checkers with the wrecking behind him

Saturday and Sunday's work for AP is no less demanding, but it involves a different kind of creative pressure as well as the expectation to produce newsworthy images for AP and its members to use with stories about the event. For a stringer like me, that usually means it needs to be something spectacular. It also happens to involve a lot less walking as AP assigns me to a location and expects me to cover anything that happens on that part of the track for the day. My vantage point this year was down track from the start-finish line and across from the flagstand on the inside of the track. I got a checkered flag shot from that spot a couple of years ago for AP so I knew what I was going to be doing both days and was just hopeful I would get something transmitted from one of the NASCAR races. A funny thing about that location on the track: I had tried to go there on Friday to get some shots for ARCA but a track security guy told me I needed to have clearance from "Homeland Security" to shoot there. I laughed about it later but I couldn't believe it at the time since I knew the guy was clueless but I wasn't going to argue with him. Apparently my clearance came through overnight as I was able to go where I needed both Saturday and Sunday! Give a guy a badge...

Sprint Cup 4 wide past the flagstand

Going from Indianapolis to Talladega and sandwiching it in between work on Thursday and Monday is no mean feat, but I earned my "Energizer Bunny" nickname in the process as the weather cooperated and everything came off like clockwork. I was depending on that too, as I needed to be back in my classroom to teach at 9:00 Monday morning. After looking at threatening skies all day Sunday, the rains that finally hit the track came after the Geico 500 was over and I drove out of bad weather by the time I got to Birmingham. It was smooth sailing from there all the way home. So for the weekend round trip, once I left Indy after teaching a half day on Thursday, I drove almost exactly 500 miles south to the hotel in Birmingham that day, then repeated the trip north Sunday evening after the Sprint Cup race to arrive home at 2:30 Monday morning. Altogether I drove 1249 miles, spent about 16 hours driving and shot 1000 miles of stock car racing at a track I have come to love. And I made it to class Monday with no problem. It's amazing what caffeine and adrenalin will do for you.

It is hard for me to believe that this spring it is almost 10 years since I got back into motorsports photography through the Indianapolis Star and then the late Don Hamilton and his American Motor Journal publication after a hiatus around the time of my divorce. I joke with people that I bought camera equipment instead of furniture after the divorce, but it became a serious matter once I hit the road in earnest in 2006. I got my first Canon, a 20D in 2005, then added the 30D in 2006 before May at Indy, and I haven't looked back since then. Now in 2016, I've worked three ARCA races already and have 11 more to go, I have the rest of May at Indianapolis for motorsport.com, and my birthday closes out the month so it's the best time of year if you ask me. In the meantime, here are some photo galleries from Talladega before I get immersed in Indycar this week with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and then the 100th Indy 500 the following week. Follow me on Twitter @alleygroup if you want to know what I'm doing this month. Or just go to 16th and Georgetown and look me up.

Salem Speedway Done; Talladega Superspeedway Next

Christopher Bell won for Venturini Motorsports in his first ARCA race

Now that the Rolex 24 Hours, my first two ARCA races and a handful of NASCAR races are in the books, it's time to get serious about racing and motorsports photography! Up until a few weeks ago, all I could do was watch from my couch and follow my friends at the races on social media. I have to admit it was driving me a little crazy. What has made it worse some days was Facebook: the "memories" it pulls up and suggests that I share, such as the memories of the first couple of Daytona 500's I had the chance to shoot for Associated Press in 2011 and 2012.  I drove down by myself both times and in 2012 had to drive back home to Indianapolis without seeing the 500 due to the race's first rain postponement ever. Then in 2013, an ice storm in Indy cancelled my flight south and I missed the whole weekend.

Pole winner Chase Briscoe was quick all day but had problems late

But that has not been the case in April as I did a banzai trip to Phoenix for the Indycar weekend as a spectator, then shot the ARCA race at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway in early April. Last weekend I shot ARCA racing again at Salem Speedway and now I am preparing to hit the road tomorrow for a trifecta with ARCA and NASCAR at Talladega. I haven't been to Talladega in two years so I am anxious to get back and see all of my Alabama friends, plus it will be the first time I have shot the ARCA race there as the official photographer for the series. It will be fun and exhausting; then I have to be back at work Monday morning to teach Algebra! I will be posting some big numbers in terms of photos taken, steps tracked on my pedometer and miles driven on the road after this weekend, I am sure. And be sure to check the ARCA Racing Series websites for more of my photos.

After Talladega, I have an off week and then preparations for the 100th Indy 500 begin the second weekend in May with the Angie's List Grand Prix. In rapid succession will be a week of Indy 500 practice, qualifying weekend, Carb Day and the 500 itself over the following two weeks when I will be shooting for www.motorsport.com once again. Before all that though, I have to tell you about Salem.

Salem Speedway is one tough half mile

If you have never been to Salem Speedway in southern Indiana, then you need to get off your butt and get out there. It is a fast, rugged, historic track that has now held 99 ARCA races. The 100th ARCA event at Salem is this September so make a point to be there. I have been going to Salem off and on for nearly 30 years, and since 2006 I have only missed one of the ARCA races there. This year's race was met with the best weather for the spring race in memory, as skies were crystal blue all day Sunday. It made for a great spectacle and wonderful scenes with intense racing among a cadre of young talent that any series would be hard pressed to match. I've said it over and over again but it bears repeating: if you want to see the future stars of stock car racing, then you need to get to an ARCA race. Up and coming talent Christopher Bell won in his first ever ARCA start; this has become the new normal ARCA as new kids come in, saddle up and go win their first time out. Another youngster Justin Haley hounded Bell and finished second while another newcomer Dalton Sargeant snagged third in his first ever ARCA race. Lord knows what we will see at Talladega Friday and that is part of the reason why I enjoy working for the series so much.

It was a gorgeous day for racing at Salem 

I have some great memories of working down south at places like Talladega and Daytona. I've had good luck shooting and always managed to get something memorable so I expect this weekend to be no different. As ARCA's photographer, I will have more freedom to roam than I will the rest of the weekend shooting for AP, and I plan to take advantage of it. While I couldn't afford the trip south or the time off from the teaching job I have now for either the Rolex 24 Hours or the Daytona 500, until this month I've had to be content with couch racing and following my photographer friends on Facebook and Twitter who have been able to be out shooting racing. That is a thing of the past, however, with my fourth race weekend out of five weekends in the month of April about to get underway. On top of that, I am still tobacco free since my last cigarette January 31st and I expect to stay that way. By Sunday, the Month of Jay will commence and the heavy lifting begins at Indianapolis so if you're looking for me, you need to just check Twitter @alleygroup or the racing calendar. Get out to the racetrack; I'll take your picture. Godspeed and safe travels everyone.

ARCA Winner Josh Williams Overjoyed at Nashville

Josh Williams with the spoils of victory

This past weekend was a weekend of firsts. It was my first race of the season as a working photographer and I could definitely feel the rust crackling off as Saturday wore on. By the time the night was over, I felt I was in the groove and was reminded again how great it is to experience the raw emotion in racing as I have been blessed to do. It was a long chilly day beginning with an officials meeting at 7:30 local time and ending back at the hotel after midnight. In between, the competitors for the The Music City 200 in the ARCA Racing Series practiced twice, qualified and raced on Nashville's historic half mile Fairgrounds Speedway oval at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. It was the 25th ARCA race at this track but the winner Josh Williams got his first one after several seasons of hard work. As I said on Twitter after the race, rarely will you see a happier driver and team after a race win, and some of his family members were literally in tears afterwards. It was a sight to see and I am glad I got to be there to document the event for the ARCA series as its "official photographer". If this race is any indication of what's to come this season, then 2016 will be one for the record books. For those of you who follow ARCA, you know that after last year's run of consecutive first time race winners, that is saying a lot.

Winner's tears from Mom

 It was great seeing and working with all my friends at ARCA again, and some of them might have been a little rusty too since it was their first race since Daytona at the end of February. For ARCA's second race (and first short track event) of 2016, a stout field of cars turned out with 17 drivers entering their first event of the season. Of those, there were seven (7) drivers who were competing in their first ARCA race ever - anywhere! So naturally, on a weekend of firsts, veteran Josh Williams got his first win in the series after several close calls the last couple of years. As the race was nearing its end, I made sure I was near their pit box as I anticipated quite a celebration and I got it. As it turned out, their pit location also put me in position to get a decent checkered flag shot, so I grabbed that and turned my attention to the crew members who had leaped out onto the pit  lane to congratulate each other. Josh's parents celebrated from on top of their war wagon while he did a decent burnout before climbing out to claim his new acoustic guitar memento and do interviews with ARCA's new television partner, American Sports Network. It was fun to be in the middle of all of that taking photos; it reinforces why I love to do what I do at the racetrack.

Autograph sessions bring ARCA drivers and fans together

I had a "first" of my own as I got through my first working race weekend tobacco free. A long drive in my car from Indy on Friday, a very long day at the race track Saturday, and the return drive home Sunday without smoking - that's never happened before! Going to Phoenix for the Indycar race last weekend was more of a pleasure trip and although I took some photos, it was not the same as working a race for ARCA as the series has some very specific preferences on what they want covered and how the image files get catalogued. The kicker (as usual) early in the season is the driver headshots which are supposed to be done before practice begins. In this case that meant 17 different drivers had to pay me a visit before they would be allowed to run in practice, and with many of them also involved in car preparation, getting them corralled is always the challenge. Plus there are other things I need to shoot while waiting for the new drivers to arrive. Thank God for radios and the fact it was a short track so I was never far from the "office" where the headshots needed to be taken. Many times, that is my first chance to meet and talk to a lot of these new drivers. I love to chat with them and find out about them - where they are from, what other kind of racing they've done, etc. I also tell them I might be a good luck charm as lots of other guys who I photographed won the very first ARCA race they entered, so they might be the next one to do it!

Josh was all smiles before the race and ecstatic after winning

I had another first on the weekend as I was breaking in a new camera which was just incredible. It's the first new body I have acquired in several years and it lived up to its billing, even if I did not quite know how to use all of its capabilities. I will learn all of that, just like I have learned everything else I know about photography - by doing it - but the things I sought the most from the camera were as true as advertised. The firing speed and low light capability were simply wonderful to utilize so I am really excited for some more night racing this ARCA season when I can really put it to good use. Next stop for me on the ARCA tour this year is Salem Speedway in southern Indiana, my second home track of sorts, so if you want to see the future of big time stock car racing, then come on out and join us.

Look me up if you do! I'll take your picture. Here's a few I took for ARCA Saturday. For more, go to www.arcaracing.com

Great Weekend in the Desert

The Phoenix oval was made for Indycar

So now the Indycar race is over and I am back in the Phoenix airport getting ready to head back home. A Friday night to Sunday night trip from Indy to Phoenix and back may seem extreme to a lot of people but I love it. I don’t know if I will feel the same tomorrow at work but that’s tomorrow; today I am happy to have gotten the chance to spend time with my brother sharing something we both love - Indycar racing - and talking about where we’re at in our lives. I don’t get to see his son, my nephew, very often as they have lived in Tucson for more than 14 years and the last time I was in Tucson was in December 2009 for my niece’s wedding, so our times together are hard to come by. Racing, or meeting over a race weekend, is turning out to be something we can manage and it gives us the chance to create some new memories together. Our next opportunity will be the Indy 500 in May and we plan to meet at Iowa in July for the ARCA and Indycar weekend. I know those will be a blast.

The gang's all here - at Phoenix together

I rarely get to go to a race these days where I can just spectate; I am usually working and have photo assignments to manage. So this weekend was an opportunity to just sit in our seats and enjoy the racing, exchanging commentary about what we were seeing and who was doing what, while not being worried about producing “award winning” photographs. Mind you, I don’t like shooting through the catch fencing from a distance as there is no way to get rid of it in the image, but I used this race to tune up for the rest of the season. What I found was my instincts are still sharp, and I can anticipate trouble many times well before something actually happens. So I was ready with my finger on the button, but didn’t stress over the results so much.

The Mayor of Hinchtown had a tough weekend

Never was that more true yesterday than during driver introductions as I knew it would be my best chance to get driver candids, and we were able to enjoy the crowd chanting and fighting for t-shirts being thrown out by the Firestone Firehawk, or reacting to the driver interviews and laughing about sponsor plugs like Josef Newgarden’s for Fuzzy’s Vodka. And we were able to do it together. We got to hang out as a group and just talk at a picnic table while we waited for the race. I got to know my nephew’s girlfriend and enjoy my nephew’s sense of humor and see how much he’s grown up, now a drummer and aspiring musician, and listen to him and my brother rattle off baseball trivia.

Today my brother and I ate breakfast and hung out by the pool at the hotel in Phoenix before the whole group went to a restaurant in Scottsdale to kill time before they had to take me back to the airport this afternoon. We went to the Old Town Scottsdale area and walked around the tourist shops, acted silly and then got ice cream and milk shakes before heading back towards Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. They still had to drive back to Tucson so we said our goodbyes at the American Airlines area and I went in to go through security, find a place to charge my phone and type this blog post. This has been one of the toughest years of my life, with my Mom’s death and other family troubles we’re having to overcome, so it’s hard to put into words how much this weekend together means to me. And how much I miss seeing my Arizona family and being part of their lives. Love you guys. Next stop Indianapolis. Then Akron Tuesday to close on the sale of Mom’s house and then to Nashville, Tennessee Friday for my first ARCA race of the season. I can’t wait to get back again.

By the way - Scott Dixon dominated and won the 250 lap race at Phoenix. 

Scottie D. had everyone covered on this night

Off to Phoenix for Indycar: Normal Is New

Mom loved racing too

This post is already surreal and I've hardly written anything. I had been sitting in the Indianapolis airport waiting to board a flight to Chicago when I started this and now I am at O'Hare waiting for my next flight. This afternoon, I had been following the Indycar qualifying from Phoenix on Twitter and through text updates from my brother, who is in Tucson and who I will meet in Phoenix tomorrow to go to the race together. Now it's evening and my layover here in Chicago is only a couple of hours so I am excited to get on another plane and head to Phoenix where I will arrive late tonight.  Then we get to spend all day tomorrow at the racetrack, Phoenix International Raceway, to watch the Indy Lights and Indycar races. My brother and I have been talking about doing this race weekend ever since the event was announced late last year. I never had any idea that it would end up being my first race of 2016, or that I would end up making a banzai trip out of it, as I will be back late Sunday night and into work Monday morning to help with orientation for our new students.

Mom didn't mind the infield either and loved Turn 3 at Indy

But the surreal part is not that I am in Indy one day and Phoenix the next: it's that I can't stop thinking about my Mom. This trip is also quite bittersweet, as I am posting on April 1st, a day that most people associate with April Fool's Day, but in our family, that has been my Mom's birthday. She would have been 81 today had she made it this far but God had other plans for her last July 5th so we are doing our best to try to celebrate her memory today with her spirit present. My brother, sister and I participated in a conference call earlier this afternoon and I know Mom was listening in as she would be glad that Steve and I were going to get together at a race this weekend. It's a shame my schedule is so tight or I'm sure our sister would have gone west too, but we will do our best to uphold the family honor at Phoenix International Raceway for the Indycar festivities. We tried to do this race together back in 2002, but Mom got sick and couldn't go, but I have her event shirt from that race with me and will wear it tomorrow at the track in her memory.

Mom loved her life in Akron

While my blog has historically been about racing, it has morphed into something else this past year with the travel and Mom's health issues becoming ever present on my mind. We are supposed to close on the sale of her home in Ohio next week and that will mark another transition in our grieving process, as that was a place Mom made her own for 25 years and we won't be going back there for anymore birthdays or Christmases, or to help get the house ready for the winter as I used to do every year. Or a million other reasons I used to come up with just to talk and see how she was doing.

Mom's in Victory Lane now

Even with all of that, it occurred to me that this race weekend in Phoenix is a nod to normalcy (whatever that is) in our lives. Next week I will take another step in that direction after a final trip to Ohio to handle the closing on her house and my week will end with a road trip by car to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway to begin my 2016 photo work for the ARCA Racing Series.

And so we begin. Mom was a big race fan and one of our biggest supporters so it is still extremely difficult to know she isn't around to talk to while I am on the road, or having trouble with a student, or to plan for the Indy 500 weekend when she used to come home almost every year. Not many women her age were still going to the Speedway each May, and she loved to say "Not bad for a little white haired old lady." Not bad indeed Mom. Here's to you. Godspeed and safe travels to us all.

Good Bye 2015 - Hello 2016

Thank God this year is almost over. Lots of people create year end Top 10 lists or propose New Year's resolutions, but I plan to do neither with this post. I simply want to thank everyone I've worked with this year in motorsports. I apologize in advance if I leave out some well deserving folks who have helped me along the way in 2015 as there are so many people I'd like to recognize individually.

I have to start with all the people at the ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards. George Mergen moved on near the end of the season but he was my "boss" at most of the 14 races I worked this season for the series. Next year will be different without George at the racetrack and I am indebted to him for the opportunity to support the series, its teams and drivers through my photography. I have put together a video that I is included at the end of this post which condenses the 14 race events (plus the season ending banquet) into a little more than six minutes. You may notice how the images often seem to fly by, which I did intentionally as that's how this season went as well. Mark Gundrum, Don Radebaugh, Larry Mauter, Doug Donnelly, and so many others at ARCA have had a hand in what I did for the series this year and I had an absolute blast traveling, shooting the races and getting to know the drivers, teams and their public relations people. I can't wait to get started in 2016 but my first race for the series won't be until April at Nashville.

I also am grateful to know and work with Eric Gilbert and Rainier Earhart at one of the coolest racing websites on the planet, www,motorsport.com. The site keeps growing into a worldwide phenomenon and I am fortunate to be a contributor. I got to work the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the 99th Indy 500 last May for the site and  I am really excited to do the same again in 2016 for the 100th Indy 500 at racing's hallowed ground, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I would love to do some other races for the site, most notably LeMans someday, but my ARCA commitments may make that impossible for awhile. I do have my passport ready just in case.

Even though I was only able to work a single race for Associated Press this year, at Atlanta for the NASCAR weekend at the end of February, I appreciate my friends there who have given me chances to do what I love. John Bazemore and Mike Stewart in Atlanta, Brynn Anderson - who I hope to finally meet at Talladega in 2016 - and John Raoux at Daytona, are all people I love working with. I really want to shoot another Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona someday, and get back there for the Daytona 500 like I did in 2014, but it doesn't look like that will be possible in 2016 due to limited leave time available from my real job as a teacher. Time will tell what I will be able to do for AP and I have to admit I am a little jealous of my friends there who are out shooting college football bowl games this New Year's holiday weekend. I would love the chance to do that someday too!

With 2015 in the rear view mirror, I am excited to look ahead and make plans for 2016. Hopefully my family will be able to wrap up my Mom's estate after her death this past July and I know I will be on the road a lot this year - probably just not to Akron so much anymore where she lived. I think of her all the time and I know her memory will come up often when I travel to races since I would always call her on the long road trips to pass the time and share the passion for racing that we had in common. It looks like I will be doing 16 or ARCA's 20 races for 2016, plus the month of May at Indianapolis for motorsport.com, so the new year promises to be very busy indeed.

Finally, I need to recognize the passing of a longtime friend and great photographer, Glenn Smith, in October this year. He helped introduce me to the folks at AP and for that I am forever in his debt. I think of him and the late Dave Martin every time I shoot a race, and ask myself, what they would do to make some pictures. I follow in their tire tracks and hope my work does their memories justice.

Until next time, please enjoy my video and turn up the volume! See you at a racetrack somewhere soon.

Best Season Ever for ARCA?

2015 ARCA Champ Grant Enfinger

What a year it has been, both for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards and for me personally. With the completion of the season ending final race at Kansas Speedway October 16th which was won by 2014 season champion Mason Mitchell, ARCA has crowned its ninth different champion in a row. This year the honors went to the driver with the most wins in 2016, Alabama's Grant Enfinger. Once I got back home to Indianapolis the day after the race, I finally had some down time to recover from a year's worth of travel and stress. The Kansas weekend itself was a whirlwind, as I left Indy Thursday afternoon, shot the event for ARCA all day Friday, and drove home Saturday, covering nearly 1100 miles over 51 hours with 16 hours driving and 18 hours at the racetrack taking most of that time. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Now that my 2015 racing season is done, it's hard to believe that it went so quickly. Last January, I had very little on my racing calendar, other than the Month of May at Indianapolis for motorsport.com and a couple races here and there for Associated Press. Things changed suddenly when the person ARCA had intended to use as its main series photographer ran into difficulty and had to bow out. I told ARCA's marketing people I would step back in for as many races as possible. That turned out to be 14 ARCA race weekends as I crisscrossed the Midwest from Pocono, Pennsylvania to Kansas City, Kansas and from Nashville, Tennessee to Marne, Michigan. I was able to witness and document some great racing along the way and experience a series from the inside out in a way I had never really done before, so it was clearly my best year as a motorsports photographer. I think ARCA fans would be hard pressed to find a better, more competitive year in series history than 2015 and I was happy with my work product most weekends, although I had some moments where learning was forced upon me due to circumstances at the track or with my equipment. Those moments and overcoming those challenges only served to make this an even more special year for me as a photographer.

Ryan Reed (38) and Travis Braden (01) were both first time ARCA winners in 2015

While champion Grant Enfinger won six races, the newcomers in the series were another big story. Fully half of ARCA's 2015 races were won by drivers who had never won an ARCA event before, and some of them did it in their first ever ARCA start. Other than Enfinger, only Ryan Reed and Mason Mitchel won more than 1 race; Reed did it in two out of the three he entered and Mason in two out of five. The other race winners only chalked up one apiece but there were 10 brand new winners in the series this season. I was there for most of those and I used t o tease the new drivers that I would see them in Victory Lane as their good luck charm which seemed to be true more often than not this year! In the process, I've taken a helluva lot of photos this season, probably more than 50,000 images for ARCA, covered a lot of territory with my feet at the races as well as behind the wheel getting there, and I think produced some of my best work. I am looking forward to 2016 and doing it all over again, although I hope my personal life will have settled down by then.

Grant Enfinger (23) races Will Kimmel at Kansas

My racing season actually began at the end of February this year with the NASCAR weekend at Atlanta for Associated Press. From there, my travels from Indy looked like this, in order of occurrence: Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, Salem Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Grand Prix of Indianapolis and 99th Indy 500), Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Winchester Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Lucas Oil Raceway, Berlin Raceway, Springfield Fairgrounds, DuQuoin Fairgrounds, Salem Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Thank goodness ARCA is a midwest-based series as Indy is about 9 hours at most from any of the tracks I went to for them this year, with Pocono as the longest drive. Altogether I went to six tracks I had never worked at before (Nashville, Pocono, Iowa, Berlin, Springfield and Kansas) but it seemed like I ran into someone I knew at every track.

"Superman" Mason Mitchell did it again

The stressful part of this season had nothing to do with the long drives to get to the races, as I love to drive. In the midst of it all, my Mom was hospitalized in June and passed away 4th of July weekend so I had extra trips to Akron, Ohio interspersed with the racing travel, and sometimes on top of it, as I visited her on the way to and from Pocono before she got ill, then drove straight from Chicagoland to Akron another weekend as she was hospitalized. My first race after her death and burial was at Iowa and I was grateful to get back to work and be with my friends at the racetrack where I could focus on the job at hand, and exercise some creativity which buoyed my spirits. That's pretty much the way the rest of the season went as well, since the long drives gave me time to clear my head and reminisce before getting down to business at the racetrack. I knew going in that Kansas was going to be a long drive, but similar in length to going to Talladega which I have done many times solo, so it was no big deal to get there late Thursday night and be at the racetrack bright and early the next morning. That's what I do. And then to see Mason Mitchell get another big win and do his Superman routine in Victory Lane as Grant Enfinger celebrated his first championship nearby was a dual thrill that I hope can be matched next season. Here's a few photos from Kansas that are just the tip of the iceberg of what I shot that weekend. I also owe a special thanks to Kevin Arburn who helped out immensely at Kansas and I hope there are more opportunities to work with him and other second shooters next year. To see all our photos from Kansas, you need to go to arcaracing.com where you can buy images or prints for your man caves!


The weekend before going to Kansas, I had been in Akron working on Mom's house and I decided to take in a bonus race at Winchester Speedway: the JEGS ARCA CRA Winchester 400 which I had never attended before. I wasn't able to stay the whole race but it was a beautiful fall day and it was nice to be at a race where I didn't have an assignment and could shoot what I wanted and experiment. Of course I saw lots of ARCA friends and photographers I knew at the track and since its a short drive from Indy I could get home to prepare for work after being gone for several days. I was impressed by the level of preparation of the CRA teams and several big names were there to race including Chase Elliott, phenom Erik Jones, Eldora trucks winner Chris Bell and numerous others. The crowd was huge, bigger than anything I had seen at Winchester before, so I was glad to get out of there before the race ended. Rarely have I left a race before it was over, but I was happy to get the shots I wanted and get home at a reasonable hour. Here's a link to my Winchester 400 photos which I shot just for kicks:

2015 Winchester 400

. Until next time, be safe and get to a race somewhere near you!

Ryan Reed Takes Delayed ARCA Crosley 150 at Kentucky

Ryan Reed (right) enjoys Victory Lane at Kentucky with Crosley CEO Bo LeMastus (left)

For the first time this season in races I've been working for ARCA, we actually got a postponement due to weather. Xfinity Series regular Ryan Reed swept to Victory Lane in the Crosley 150 at Kentucky Speedway to snag the second win of the season for Lira Motorsports The race was originally supposed to be run Friday evening September 26th but got washed out and even Saturday afternoon the 26th, Reed had to dodge more raindrops to make it to Victory Lane. A brief sprinkle around lap 40 created a caution which had all the teams wondering about strategy and whether the race would run the full distance of 100 laps. But the "moisture" didn't amount to much, the track quickly dried and the racing resumed with about 45 laps to go.

Grant Enfinger was all business at Kentucky: Fear the Finger indeed

Reed drove to the front late in the race after Xfinity Series regular Daniel Suarez led for most of the first third of the event on Kentucky's bumpy asphalt and then youngster Austin Cindric led the middle third. Cindric had tire problems twice that hurt his finish, and the second time a flat put him into the wall as the checkers flew. Reed had to fend off a stout challenge from Rookie Of The Race Travis Braden - the winner at Lucas Oil Raceway earlier this summer in his first ever ARCA start - who nearly went two for two on the season in his first ever superspeedway start. Another rookie, David Levine, had an excellent third place finish ahead of Ross Kenseth in Ken Schrader's car and season points leader Grant Enfinger. Another Xfinity Series regular, Daniel Suarez looked strong but could only muster sixth ahead of Kyle Weatherman. All Enfinger needs to do now to win his first ARCA title is to start the final race at Kansas October 16th and he will be the champ for 2016. That seems only fitting in a season where Enfinger has consistently racked up wins with six on all kinds of tracks and only Reed was able to get more than one, with Kentucky his second victory out of two starts. This year ARCA has seen an incredible number of first time winners with 10 new faces finding their way to the winner's circle. It's been great to be a part of documenting these milestones all season for ARCA and I hope I've captured some memories for all the participating teams and drivers.

Daniel Suarez (15) and Travis Braden battle at the start

I had an interesting weekend with the unexpected extra time for editing of Friday's practice and qualifying action. I still have to hustle to get through everything after the race is over, and you wouldn't believe how fast a 100 lap race can seem when you're following a strategy to shoot and move every 10 laps. I was on pace to set a record high for steps on my pedometer Friday as I had topped 22,000 before the race and then I added another 14,000 on Saturday when we finally did race, so I got my exercise! The rainy and overcast conditions did keep the temperatures at a moderate level so it was not unearthly hot as some of the other ARCA races I've worked this summer. I decided at the last minute to start the race in the flagstand to get a start shot and I'm glad I did, as there was a guest from race sponsor Crosley waving the green flag and I got a sequence of the big wreck in Turn 3 on the first lap that I couldn't have gotten from anywhere else. I don't think anyone else got the crash sequence so I hope folks will buy some from the ARCA website! Help a brother (and the series) out, you know!

Austin Cindric (99), Kyle Weatherman (22) and race winner Reed mix it up

Going to Kentucky Speedway this year was also a little bittersweet for me. I've been there many times for both Indycar and Sprint Cup racing, but this was the first time I have been back since Indycar ran there last in 2011. That was also the last time I saw Dan Wheldon alive as he lost his life just two weeks later at Las Vegas. It was good to be back and shoot a race again, although I do think it's a shame that Indycar doesn't run at Kentucky anymore since it's a perfect track for Indycars and they consistently delivered photo finishes that were a thrill to photograph. Kentucky Speedway also does a tremendous job of taking care of us photographers and I love working with them. Now if we can just get the winning drivers to climb out and face the photographers first, we will have it nailed. But we still have Kansas in a couple of weeks so maybe the PR people can work on that! See you there!

Grant Enfinger Does It Again! Wins Salem Federated 200

Grant receives his winner's trophy from Salem Speedway owner

The GMS Racing team somehow managed to put Grant Enfinger and the #23 back in Victory Lane again Saturday night at Salem Speedway and left everyone scratching their heads on how he did it. It was Grant's sixth win of the 2015 season and bumped his overall points lead up over Josh Williams with two races left to run. The series races this Friday at Kentucky Speedway and then October 16th at Kansas Speedway so there's not much time for competitors to catch "The Finger" but Lord knows they will give it their best shot. Williams, Tom Hessert and Austin Wayne Self are in a tight battle for positions two through four in the season standings, and rookie leader David Levine is not far behind in fifth. With the final two races of 2015 both slated for live television coverage, you can bet the fields will be strong and Enfinger will have his work cut out for him to seal the series title.

It was a beautiful night for ARCA racing; Ken Schrader set fast time

With only two races left, it's hard to believe how fast this season has gone by, as I have worked twelve races for the ARCA series this year as their photographer. The travel has been fun and the races quite entertaining so this past weekend at Salem was somewhat nostalgic for me. I couldn't help but think of my friend, the late Don Hamilton, a racing writer and former owner/editor of the American Motor Journal publication. It was Don who gave me the chance to get back into racing photography in a big way in 2006 after I had gone through a divorce and was exploring a variety of career options. I started going to the Salem ARCA races that fall and have only missed one since then, when I had to be at Mid Ohio for the Rolex Grand Am race. Don had many great friends in racing and had a special connection with Salem  due to close friends working on the track safety team. I've been going there long enough now to see those friends raise their boys up seemingly at the track, as they have taken roles with the track crew as well. Don and I collaborated on several articles through the years and I know he would have enjoyed the racing at Salem this past weekend. God rest your soul Don.

Richard Hauck got it wrong coming off of Turn 2 on his first hot lap

If you've never been to a race at Salem, it is one of those tracks that you really should check out. It's a half mile, high banked soup bowl with bumps galore, some aging and worn out asphalt, and two distinctly different lines through the corners. Both ends of the track are essentially hairpins which look the same but drive completely differently. The Turn 1 and 2 end can accommodate three- and sometimes four-wide racing where drivers will dive down to the bottom on entry. The other end of the track seems to be just a single line, right up against the wall, and the transitions to the straightaways at both ends are brutal, spitting unsuspecting drivers out toward the wall or into lurid loose spins if they don't unwind the wheel soon enough. And the roar of more than 30 ARCA machines inside that bowl is deafening, with vibrations that envelope you as long as the green flag flies. I love it, and I've been there more often than any other track that isn't named the Indiana Motor Speedway.

Josh Williams rim rides in Turn 3; he is 2nd in the season standings

Salem hasn't changed much through the years but it seems like the ARCA series definitely has since I started covering it regularly at Salem in 2006. The last few years have seen much cleaner racing at Salem, whereas it used to seem like you could count on seeing lots of torn up equipment at the end of every race there. Then the teams would get out the 200 mph tape, bang on the fenders and send guys back out with cars that often ended up looking like modifieds.

That seems to have changed over the last few years. Last year for instance, there was only a single caution, which is almost unheard of at Salem! I think there are several reasons for the cleaner action at Salem, not the least of which is the rise in driver talent, especially among the young guns that all seem to have driver development deals with established Sprint Cup teams. These kids are just flat good, and they know how to go fast and keep the equipment clean. I think the quality of the equipment has also improved along with the expertise of mechanics and crews, many of whom are preparing themselves for future Sprint Cup roles. This Salem race there were 12 brand new composite bodied cars with the new Ilmor 396 engines, and tires were in short supply, so everyone really had to conserve their gear to make it the full 200 laps. But it didn't effect the quality of the racing and in fact may have put a premium on race strategy this year, so from that standpoint, it should not be surprising that Grant Enfinger and his GMS racing team came out with another win.

Bo LeMastus (42) had his best short track finish of 2015 with a ninth

There's an old saying that old age and treachery wins out over youth and exuberance, but that has not been the case most of this year - with the notable exception of Grant Enfinger, and he is by no means old. He has really come into his own this year as a driver and GMS is the hot team to beat as the season winds down. I will be heading to Kentucky Thursday evening to work Friday's 150 miler and then only the finale at Kansas remains. These will be the 13th and 14th ARCA events I have photographed this year and it has really been fun to be on the inside of the action as a full season title fight has unfolded. Maybe when the last race is run, I will have more time to reflect on highlights of my personal season on the road, but right now I just have to focus on getting my gear ready and prepping to shoot race 19 of the ARCA season. What a year it has been. Hope you can make it out to Kentucky or Kansas and see for yourself how the future stars of stock car racing conduct their business. Look me up if you're at the track!